Long, long ago, there were the Aertehl.
They came from the earth, but it was the skies that they reigned. They waltzed in the gales of endless realms, tempests were their playgrounds. They lived by the lands and the lands upon them, entrusting the seeds of life for them to flourish faraway lands. They lived for eons. They lived in harmony with all creatures and all things, of a time when the world was bright and warm with life everywhere.
The Elder had seen all of that age. And, it had seen how life faded away. The skies vanished and the lands withered, and darkness encroached, usurping the light and condemning everything to rot. Viscous air chained the Aertehl's wings. Barren earth could bear their kin no longer. The void and the vile scourges it breeded consumed them, each by each. The wring of death would spare none.
Still, life clinged on, and there was the Young One. The flickering twilight. Miraculous it was to have risen from the acrid soil. Damned it was to have been born of the acrid soil. The child was so frail it could not spread its wings. So brittle, its body flaked with every tremble. So tender, and yet it must bear this madness.
The most senior of the species had been entrusted this ray of life. Carrying the child upon its back, the Elder could almost feel a warmth of hope. But it felt so poignant, the march of cruel fate upon them all, upon the poor sod that fate is eager to claim within its clasps.
And the clasps must close anyhow.
One heinous blow, and they fell from the pack. They could only watch, their kind waning into the endless black.
They were injured.
The abominations closed near.
Nowhere else to go.
The world was so dark, then.
And it was so, so cold.
The Elder knew it all, knew that with life comes death. With light comes darkness. But the Young One, the sole Young One, it would never know the sublime wind. It would never know the dazzling light. It would never know, the warmth of life. And as the fragile creature curled up within its arms, the Elder embraced.
And then it knew but one will.
Child,
it has been quite a journey
and you can rest now
Dream of the blue skies
and the green meadows
Of the tender breezes
and the gentle dew
Of a place you would find so nice
that awaits
before your very eyes
I afraid I will not see you fly
But if you feel lonely
I am still right by
For the earth is my body
that shall hold your sleep
And the air is my breath
that shall lift your flight
And though no ill shall reach this realm
Through time, life will, all the same
O, child,
may you
Soar upon the sublime wind
Revel in the dazzling light
Live!
In the warmth of life. In the warmth of love.